#and it was about some 30 something year old

[flymetosnarryland]

We have a problem...

There is only one person you can ask for help when Harry disappears, right?

I'm stressed, super tired and in pain, so… going to vent a little, because feeling a bit helpless, eh. The thing is, I have this nasty cough and I have it all my life. 30+ years of endless months of freaking cough that no doctor knows why I have it and how to fix it. I know people have worse health problems, so I'm not complaining. I'm just living with it, even if it's really hard sometimes, because my body is too tired to deal with it. Imagine coughing every day for couple months in a row like you spit your lungs and other inside stuff out. Your throat is sore all the time. You have hoarse and your chest muscles are on their limits, everything just hurts. Every time it ends, I'm feeling fucking blessed. Now it's going for two months after a month or so break and I'm pretty sure one of my chest muscles tore up or something. The doc I went to, said by hearing what I feel, that it's some in between ribs nerve issue. She gave me some fat painkillers and say goodbye, heh. (They works half way though) I hate to take pills and trying to avoid it as much as I can. But I started this year with different pills for different shit and I just want… I want this cough to stop. I want to be free from other not fully understood health issues than was born from that stupid flu and go back to my good, free from stress life. It was so good before, eh. I just cross my fingers that the lungs specialist I have a visit at Monday will not treat me like a pest and actually will be able to help solving some of the 30 years old cough's mystery. I'm not dying or something. I'm happy, because I'm pretty healthy in general. But I'm so freaking and dead tired because of stupid, neverending cough and can only cry. Just cry, cus can't do a shit with it. Normally I was swallowing it all. It's a shame to talk about something such trivial like this, isn't it? But as my psychologist said, I shouldn't ignore things that makes me feel really bad. And to be honest, talking about it, venting here and even crying, eh, it helps. Next day is a little bit better. Every time. And I'm really happy and grateful for having something to do. To be able to draw at least, since I'm slow with writing cus of the pain. But Snarry truly is my comfy blanket and helps me a lot dealing with stress.

Whoever managed to read that wall of cry, thank you. Hopefully you will not count me as stupid, heh. It's hard as fuck to share personal stuff for me. Especially knowing that other people have bigger problems... mines sounds silly compare to others. I know...

[dekusdante]

Well it's that time again for another JJK rant.

So by this point I would assume that most of you know my eternal hatred towards the enemies to lovers trope when it comes to Gojo x reader stories right.

Well we are back at it again cause I am hoping people know that this type of relationship isn't one that Gojo would ever go for. Like it's one of those things that the fandom latched on to like My Hero Academia Hawks being a flirty playboy. It's not something that fits the character but it something that so many people latched on to that they now believe that it's a thing.

Like Gojo knows his worth and value. He literally dislikes those that he views as stuck up or just down right unlikeable. Aka every reader in the enemies to lovers trope. Like you are telling me you hate this guy for no reason but it's okay because your only saving grace is that he finds you attractive.

Seriously.

That is the how 95% of them go. Also to even it out they would make Gojo do some out of pocket stuff to justify the reader treating him like dirt while also always making him the bad guy even if he did nothing wrong.

I am so sick of this copy and paste trope. Now I know i don't have to read it which I don't. If I see it I keep scrolling. Although there are gems I sadly just skip past them because I'm used to the bad and boring ones. (Lowkey reminds me of the dumbest Gojo x reader story on wattpad called Debt. Freaking dumbest reader/mc I have ever read couldn't even get past the first few chapters. The first and only time this has happened)

Another thing is bad reverse harem stories. Like I don't care the reader is 18! Why are men close to their 30s trying to have a relationship with them? Why is said 18 year old trying to have a romantic relationship with freshly turned 15 year old? Look 18 maybe considered an adult but it's still gross and it would have been better if the reader was 20 and up. Also if you want your reader to have love interests that are 15 then they should at least be under 18.

I am sick of gross age gaps, don't care if you are 20 years old dating a 30, 40, or whatever just make it legal! 18 isn't a cheat code!

Also harems suck since they either end up with no one, end up with someone not in the harem, or worst not even completed. Yet, the biggest crime is as I said it before the gross 18 year old cheat code.

Finally the last of my random rant which has to deal with genders and sexyal orientation. Stop writing about boy x boy if you are only going to stereotype them. Yes gay mean may like to be more of the feminine side but NOT all of them. Not all males who prefer to be a bottom want to wear feminine clothes and act like a femboy.

Not all trans people want to be just a title! Don't include them if you are not even going to try! Same with the non binary or gender neutrals. Don't include them but give traits that have a gender that goes against their stances. It's wrong.

Also I lied this is my final rant. Stop saying it's a reader story if you are not going to be neutral. For example giving a reader appearances that instantly alienate a reader. Sure I understand fem reader or male reader tags but to then give them hairstyles, skin tones that alienate others, or ect. I'm a POC (Person of color) and it sucks when you are reading something and instantly shown you are not included. Luckily the anime community is slowly but surely getting more inclusive. No I'm talking about those that want to read reader stories from fandoms like The Boys (Scarlett Witch took over i swear) or (Squid Games I know it's in Korea but dang why can't I be american?).

Anyway that's all. I would love to read and possibly reply to comments. Some may agree others not so much which is far I am criticizing something so it's 100 okay to throw it back!

[asexualbookbird]

It sure has been a Year huh. Ups and downs this month, as life happens. Saw friends I haven't seen in years, went into the city and met new friends, tried new foods, saw some birds, tried new crafts, read new books.

The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Hm! Interesting! Didn't hate it, but something feels missing? Almost like it could've benefited from being at the very least a short novel. It needed more. I also have qualms at this being pitched as sapphic when there is no romance at all and the main character talks a lot about being betrayed by her last romance with a man. One mention of Woman With Hot Thighs. Not mad I read it, might even read it again.

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming ⭐️⭐️ ‐ I'll be honest, one star is Mean but I had a lot more fun reading Fourth Wing and that was two stars. The tone is what dragged this one down for me. It reads like YA, but it's very much not. I do not believe for a second the MC is 24, she doesn't act like it at all. The sex scenes. Are there. I could make an entire post about the book ending on them having penetrative PiV sex. Part of my grievances are me not liking the genre, but I truly think this just isn't that good. Plenty of people on the internet write better more filthy works for free. Why was this sitting unassumingly on the library shelf.

*amended to two stars if this is indeed satire

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djèlí Clark ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Fine. Not much to say because it was Completely Average. Not mad I read it, but don't wish to repeat the experience. I think maybe Clark isn't an author for me, as I recall feeling similarly about A Master of Djinn. It's not so much that the characters or world feel flat, but something definitely feels missing. It was silly and lighthearted and gory and I did like that though!

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Another hit from Sarah Beth Durst. I see your Themes. I see your Tropes. Kindness. Found family. Accepting help. All personal attacks on me. Adorable, fun, some sort of cross between T Kingfisher and Becky Chambers, I didn't want it to end, and now have a name for my spider plant. It also seems like I need to get my spider plant a friend.

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo ⭐️⭐️ - I have very mixed feelings about this that are really summarized as This Wasn't For Me. I like the idea that yeah you're a monster but someone loves you anyway. I like using the monster to punish those who called you one. I think there's some very specific midwestern religious trauma that I'm missing to really Get It, though. On top of that, while I recognize the themes and significance in the age gap, a 30 year old going after an 18 year old icks me out. I'd still recommend it with very very heavy reservations.

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal ⭐⭐ - Going to be honest, I just finished this and I'm already moving on. The writing was fine and I'm not put off of the author entirely, but I never felt wowed. I was annoyed more than anything. I didn't love any of the characters, but I didn't really hate anyone either. The amount of people Tesla let pet her service dog drove me nuts. The ending felt slapped together. It never really felt cohesive. I feel vindicated reading that fans of her other books also were unimpressed with this. I wouldn't steer people away from it, but I didn't have a lot of fun.

I'm tentatively excited for February. I have art ideas I'd like to get started on, I am working on a craft thing that I might be able to profit a bit off of, I'm flat out ignoring the world, book club is approaching. I'm looking for good things in the world, and I will find them. That is a threat.

[if-tomorrow-never-comes]

With tastes like these, Burroughs was not Nirvana’s target demographic. Still, he maintained a soft spot for the band’s leader. For Cobain’s 27th birthday on February 20, 1994, Burroughs sent a photo of Kurt inside the orgone accumulator affixed to a painting he had made himself. A note in cramped handwriting read: “For Kurt, all best on 27th birthday and many, many more. From William S. Burroughs.” Less than two months later, the young star was dead. In the wake of the tragedy, Burroughs reflected on their meeting and Cobain’s choice to end his life. “The thing I remember about him is the deathly grey complexion of his cheeks,” he remarked. “It wasn’t an act of will for Kurt to kill himself. As far as I was concerned, he was dead already.” [52]As Christopher Sandford describes in the biography Kurt Cobain, Burroughs, troubled by the musician’s violent end, attempted to find meaning in Kurt’s lyrics: “There was surely poignancy in the sight of the 80 year-old author, himself no stranger to tragedy, scouring Cobain’s songs for clues to his suicide. In the event he found only the ‘general despair’ he had already noted during their one meeting.” Cobain’s suicide note demonstrates his intense feelings of empathy: “There’s good in all of us and I think I simply love people too much, so much that it makes me feel too fucking sad.” Burroughs’ own exit would not come for several more years. He made his final journal entry on July 30, 1997—just three days before he died from complications following a heart attack. His final testament bears some similarities to Cobain’s: “There is no final enough of wisdom, experience—any fucking thing. No Holy Grail, No Final Satori, no solution. Just conflict. Only thing that can resolve conflict is love, like I felt for Fletch and Ruski, Spooner, and Calico. Pure love. What I feel for my cats past and present. Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is. LOVE.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

From Glee Violette, published yesterday January 30, 2025.

So here is what is happening.

It's not Trump.

He is looking so miserable because he is being forced to do WORK, and he hates doing WORK. Hopefully, at some point he either balks, or he runs out of steam at the pace he is being forced to keep. The way he is looking lately, that may be sooner rather than later. Hopefully.

All these reams of Executive Orders he is signing? He did not write a single one of them.

Some were written since the election, of things Trump promised at his rallies. But most of them were written over the past 4 years. They were written by Stephen Miller, AKA Wormtongue, his former and once again speechwriter and adviser.

They were written by Russell Vought, who is going through Senate confirmation hearings for the OMB, which put out that order stopping all federal grants, loans and disbursements Monday.

They were written by ALL the writers of the Project2025 playbook, the agenda Trump pretended he had nothing to do with.

How many writers? Project2025 is made up of over 100 conservative organizations! THAT is why there are so many Executive Orders waiting to be signed. Trump is probably having to ice his arm every night.

What is the overall agenda? To totally tear down our government. Totally. The good with the bad. Seriously.

Rachel Maddow showed video of JD Vance praising a mentor of his, Curtis Yarvin, on a far-right talk podcast, and that mentor not only advocates the complete destruction of the governement, closing down every department and firing every single person, but then building a new corporate style organization instead, with a CEO, not a president, at the top.

No three branches of government, just ONE. A corporation, to run America like a business. And he said that the other name for a CEO is a "dictator", and that is what America needs. Curtis Yarvin said emphatically that we must "get over" our fear of the word DICTATOR.

JD VANCE told podcaster Jack Murphy, "So step one in the process is to totally replace — like rip out like a tumor — the current American leadership class, and then reinstall some sense of American political religion."

Jack Murphy responded in the video, "How do we rip out this leadership class? What options do we have besides voting them out?"

"This is a tough question, but this is maybe the question that confronts us right now. There's this guy Curtis Yarvin who's written about some of these things," said Vance.

And Jack Murphy grinned and nodded in agreement. That is what they plan, folks. Corporations are businesses. They were there to make money. They are not there to take care of their workers, or the customers, or the environment, or public safety, and ESPECIALLY they are not there to hand out help to people who NEED help from disasters, or illnesses, or old age.

That is why they are starting by trying to eliminate oversight, and stop all funding of EVERYTHING. And now, gettng rid of EVERYBODY.

Trump signed a new order last night for EVERY WORKER IN OUR GOVERNMENT. In EVERY department. He is offering EVERY SINGLE WORKER, every department manager, every civil servant, every scientist, every inspector, every accountant, every researcher, every secretary - EVERYBODY - a termination package. They will get a nice payoff and perks if they agree to quit their job.

But they only have ONE WEEK to decide.

Otherwise, the threat is that they could be terminated at any time with no nice goodbye package at all.

And the threat is also there that they could be transfered from the job they know and are invested in, to doing something totally ridiculous and hateful. Trump said out loud he may send the new IRS hires to deal with immigrants at the Border instead. In fact, he may send ANY entire department to a far-off location, uprooting and disrupting their family, as he did when he sent all the FDA scientists to a midwest location, during his first administration. Half of them quit.

The INTENTION of Project 2025 is to TOTALLY dismantle our government. And to rebuild it as a stripped down corporation, with workers only loyal to THEM.

What happens to US? We have been here before, folks. I remember the days when there were no protections for people. You worked, paid for your own food, shelter and medical bills or you died. Old people. Disabled people. Unmarried women. Children.

If you got unjustly fired, too bad. If you could not get a job because you were too old, or just got out of the hospital, or out of prison, or out of rehab, or were a disabled veteran, or disabled, period, or had kids at home, or might become pregnant, or were ANY minority that a business owner hated, too bad.

If your house burned down, if you got cancer, if you had an accident, too bad.

When I was a young adult, hospitals refused to treat people without money or insurance, even in emergencies. They died outside the door, on the sidewalk. If they ran out of money, they were pushed out the door in a hospital gown to die on the sidewalk. THIS HAPPENED. Every day.

We are returning to a MERIT based system? No more bad old DEI? People will be hired for what they are qualified to do based on their education, accomplishments, skills and experience? BULLSH!T.

Once again, hiring will be done BASED ON THE CODE OF THE OLD BOYS CLUB.

WHAT QUALIFICATIONS does Robert F Kennedy Jr have? Education? Harvard and then Law School. He does not have one single medical degree. And he is on record for himself saying he was a heroin addict from high school all the way through college. He dealt cocaine from his dorm room at Harvard. He got arrested.

THIS IS ALL ON RECORD.

Experience? He knows NOTHING about medicine. Nor does he know anything about managing a business. He is a lone wolf who has traded on the Kennedy name and his famly fortune to get attention, be a celebrity, and GET MONEY.

His cousin Caroline Kennedy, JFK's daughter, just wrote a letter to the Senate reminding them of all this, not they they were unaware of ANY of this in the first place.

HE VACCINATED HIS OWN CHILDREN, while discouraging other parents NOT to vaccinate their children, for MONEY. To fundraise for donations. To rake in their cash and do NOTHING in return but book celebrity appearances to make speeches full of lies.

Caroline Kennedy called him a predator, who used his charisma to talk his younger brothers and cousins into buying the drugs he was selling, and getting them addicted. His younger brother died of a drug overdose.

She talked of unspeakable acts of animal cruelty involving his pet reptiles. He did right it in front of people, to show off. He thought it was funny. He would put live baby chicks with mice into the blender and turn it on in front of his children. Like he thought his prank with the dead bear cub and eating a dog were funny.

So he is not even being considered for Cabinet Head of the entire Department of Health because he is a stand-up guy with integrity and CHARACTER.

He is being hired for his NAME. Not HIS name, his father and his uncle's name.

He is being hired because of a Quid Pro Quo arrangement. He quit the presidential race in exchange for running the only part of the government he REALLY wanted.

MERIT? Merit does not count at all. What counts is that he is all in on the vision of Project2025. To destroy the Health Department and eliminate it.

What counts is his stone-cold desire for money and power in the new Corporate American Dictatorship.

What counts is his ethnic bona-fides, his BIRTHRIGHT into the Old Boys Club.

This is happening in real time, folks.

Donald J Trump is just the figurehead in all this.

He is the cult leader who can do no wrong in the eyes of his followers. He can get away with ramming hundreds of Executive Orders, most of them illegal and unConstitutional through, like a machine gun, at our entire country.

While half the country - people too blinded by hero worship to see this affects them too - cheer and fistpump. While WE are shocked into inaction. And while our politicians DUCK, and try to figure out the best way to hang on to their careers and their power and their money. And maybe their lives.

Donald Trump removed the protection details from leaders of his last administration who turned against him - or who HE now views as an "enemy". He released 1,500 former rogue militia members and their leaders back onto the streets. He pardoned religious activists who harrassed and assaulted patients at women's clinics.

The message is as clear now as it was on January 6th, 2021.

Violence is OK. Don't worry about the law. Trump doesn't obey any. As long as you are loyal to Trump, you don't have to obey the law either. Wink-wink.

From now on, the LAW is only what Donald J Trump SAYS it is.

So what happens if Trump is no longer President?

JD Vance steps right in, and pushes the Project 2025 agenda through with a vengeance, of course.

But here is the thing. JD does not hold the blind devotion of the cult members. They do not idolize him. In fact, they are at best lukewarm towards him. He will not be able to manipulate them as Trump does, or even pull their wool over their eyes about what he is doing, and what the adverse consequences will be for them.

Because of this, JD does not have the leverage over the politicians in Congress or the Supreme Court Justices that Trump has.

Trump MUST be stopped. By the courts, or by impeachment - but it must happen. He must be removed from office ASAP.

Or, as he is so fond of saying, "We won't have a country anymore."

[From Glee Violette, published yesterday January 30, 2025.]

[truthseekers-journal]

Clyde do you have friends?

🐦

One time when I was 13 I spoke to someone my age but I started to talk about forensics and how I was investigating the next door neighbors (about 30 minutes away) cause they had an incredible amount of clementine wrappers in their garbage (no I wasn’t looking in their garbage why would you think that) and WHY would a person like clementines that much anyways so I had begun to construct a theory on how they were involved in evil insider fruit trading and my Mom was just happy I was getting out of the house, really, but one day he caught me in his yard and was like “what are you doing here” and I panicked and said I was writing a story for my school newspaper (I was homeschooled) and he was weirdly excited about it and asked me to send him the article when I was done and offered me a clementine which REALLY solidified the idea that this guy was some odd citrus man but I ate it anyway cause I didn’t want to seem rude and when I got home I was super sick so I CLEARLY AND REASONABLY made this poor old man my nemesis for the next year. Anyways it turned out that the clementine wasn’t the problem cause I was still sick and I think it might have been the blue lizard I ate on a dare from my big sister which I honestly wasn’t expecting, I assumed it was just gonna let me fly or something because I had heard the government was experimenting on lizards in their secret labs and really, why would a lizard be blue anyway?

Anyways I told him this and he got really weirded out for some reason? And that pretty much sums up all my social experiences for the past 27 years.

[wlwsoccerfics]

Getting ready for the Game.(LotteWubben-MoyXToddlerReader)

AN: i hope you love it and it's what you imagined when you requested it.

Summary: you decided to put your Finger paint to a good use & your momma isn't sure how you feel about that.

Your momma was on her Phone in the kitchen, talking to one of your aunties from Arsenal. You were a little bit bored so you decided to grab your Finger paint. Taking the Red and White ones Out of the little Box they were in. Your momma forgot to put the box away after you painted with her last night.

Your momma had a game later today so you wanted to look extra pretty & had the Idea of painting your face. Taking the red paint and opening it. Half of the paint landing on your little white dress. How unfortunate. But it gave you a brilliant idea. At least in your eyes it was.

Your put your hands in the blob of paint that had fallen onto your dress and put red hand prints all over the dress. You looked in your full length mirror and giggled. You Loved your Arsenal dress.

"Little Lion?"Lotte walked back in and saw you dancing around in the freshly new pimped dress. Your tiny hands still full of the Red Paint. "Oh lord!" She said and looked at you. Quite stressed out.

"Mommy Look! I mades my dress more pwetty!" You replied. You were almost three years old and loved to dress up. Especially in Arsenal colors. She kneeled down in front of you.

"i can see that sweet Girl!" She told you gently. "but we don't just Paint stuff without asking Mommy or another grown up. you know that right?" Lotte asked.

You looked down and started biting down on your bottom lip.

"i am so sowwy mommy!" You told her and teared up a little. "Oh little Lion it's okay! I am not mad!" She pulled you in for a hug. Not caring about the fresh paint one your dress. "And your dress is really pretty! You can wear it to the Game tonight ! If you want to! I bet the other Girls gonna love it as well!" She whispered out. Holding you close. You held onto her. Not wanting to let go of your mommy any time some. Hiding your face in her shoulder.

"you think so?" You asked, face still very well hidden.

"yes of course angel. Lets get your hands cleaned up and Mommy is gonna take a quick shower before we drive to the game?" She suggested.

"okay Mommy!" You told her. She went to the bathroom to wash your hands and then used the Hair dryer to dry the paint on your dress.

After that she had to clean up herself because her clothes were full of Red Paint from the hug she has given you earlier.

While she got ready for the game she put on Peppa Pig for you on her phone. Which was your favorite Show so you happily watched it. Being really entertained by it. Especially because you barely watched TV or anything like that. You watched like 30 minutes a week maybe.

Soon your mommy returned and you drove to the Game with your mommy.

"i am Happy Mommy!" You let her know. Lotte smiled gently.

"that's good to hear! I Always want to try my best to make sure you are happy, little Lion!" Lotte told you.

"you knows why i am so happy?" you asked your mommy. She shook her head no.

"i don't know. Want to tell me?" Your Mommy said. You giggled and kicked your feet around, sitting in your carseat.

"cause you let me wear my pretty dress!" You explained to her.

"aww. that makes me happy to hear! So looks like we are both happy!" Lotte stated. For the remaining five minutes of the Car Ride you listened to Taylor Swift with her.

A little while later you walked into the locker room with your mommy.

"Look i have mades this dress more pretty." You informed everyone.

"little lion it looks stunning!" Alessia told you and kneeled down to hug you. You ran over to her and jumped into her arms, hugging her.

"auntie lessi! thank you. it's my new Arsenal dress." You let her know.

"kiddo you always are our good luck Charm but this dress is just gonna add another spark to it!" Katie answered and smiled at you warmly.

"auntie katie, that's so nice. thanks you!" you happily say. Staying all cuddled up to Alessia.

You got many more compliments for your dress before you went to sit on the bench with Lia. Cause she wasn't playing from the beginning. With you on the bench were Caitlin & Leah among other Girls.

You talked to them about Peppa pig and your new dress some more. The First half ended with Arsenal being in lead 2-0. Your mom was on the bench with you now during the second half of the Game. Which you ended Up winning 4-0.

You really felt like their little good luck charm.

[kradogsrats]

Just a Quick Revisit of the Rolly-Cube

Looking at the cube roll scene in s6e2 again because honestly I'm still kind of mad that I whiffed it so hard.

So the first and only other place we see this feature of the Key explicitly referenced is in Callum's Spellbook, where he notes:

I've been noticing that something interesting happens whenever I roll the cube on the ground. It leaves marks pointing in the same direction every time. Once we got to Xadia, the marks started getting longer, but still pointed in the same direction. Is the cube BEING PULLED SOMEWHERE?

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when Callum's Spellbook is "set," but most of it is written as if referencing a point shortly before the Battle of the Storm Spire. It doesn't get any later than that, at least. The pages about the Key do reference Harrow wanting Callum to have it, and then "once we got to Xadia," so they can't be from any earlier than early s3.

By the start of s4, Callum would also only have visited at most three of the marked locations on his map: the Cursed Caldera, the Storm Spire, and maybe the vicinity of Lux Aurea. He also, at that point, has never heard the name "Aaravos" anywhere beyond the single reference in Harrow's letter. He stops to pick up the mirror because of its association with "Fallen Star," and grabs the Key on his way out—hey, the gang's back together(?) for a road trip through Xadia, might as well bring it along for old times' sake.

Anyway, I think we can conclude that Callum didn't pursue or even really think about the Key during the two-year period between s3 and s4. For one thing, it's something that reminds him of Rayla, so he probably doesn't want to think about it. He also has plenty of other stuff going on to occupy him—being high mage, the mirror, researching primal arcana that are not Moon... the Key is a low-priority curiosity compared to all the other stuff he has access to, now.

Obviously, s4 then properly kicks off the "Mystery of Aaravos," and suddenly it's relevant again.

When he returns to it in s6, we get this literally 30-second scene involving what's actually a kind of weird sequence of actions and reactions. He rolls the Key and it makes a sequence of visible marks:

He then picks up his pencil and we cut to the book, in a way where it's not actually clear whether or not he writes anything down (but presumably he does):

He checks the other page, and only then does he mark his current location with an X on the map... as a two-line X, not the outlined cross in his little chart:

Finally, he picks up the Key again and looks from it to his map like he has received some unexpected and confusing result:

So like... look, I don't think I was totally insane for interpreting that as "Callum is marking the location derived from the Key's rolling on the map," rather than him apparently adding a new entry to his data and recording the marks before marking on the map where the data was collected.

What's interesting to me now, though, is why is he so baffled by this?

Here's a theory: the Key has two main associations, those being Aaravos and the primal sources. Callum has, up until this moment, only been recording the Key's behavior at the primal nexuses: Lux Aurea, the Storm Spire, Umber Tor, and the Cursed Caldera. He obviously had the Key on his mind at Umber Tor, and it's entirely possible it only occurred to him then, given everyone's sudden preoccupation with maps, to start keeping that record.

I think what might be surprising him here is that he's not at a nexus, and yet has gotten a new set of marks. He's only now connecting that they converge on a single location from anywhere else on the map. After all, he could have pinpointed the intersection of the lines from basically any two other nexuses. He could literally have rolled the Key at the Storm Spire at the end of s3 and then the Cursed Caldera in Through the Moon and already been done. (Though it's always smart to collect more data.) So there's some reason it takes until s7 for him to do this:

We also see here that there's a sixth point added, from somewhere in the same vicinity as the Cursed Caldera—presumably the Banther Lodge or similar, now that he's finally sat down to pull together some results.

The two immediate problems with this theory are a) it's a pretty significant regression from where he was in Callum's Spellbook as far as figuring out what's going on, and b) as of s6e2, he hasn't been back to the Moon Nexus. The Moon Nexus issue could be explained away as him having pre-s4 records from there and the Storm Spire that he dug up after the fact to add to his data pool.

As far as Callum's Spellbook is concerned, I'm willing to accept some fuzziness in maintaining consistency on something like this—the way its described isn't very clear or consistent with what we see in s6e2 anyway, in terms of how the marks appear. (Callum also does not approach the question with any real degree of scientific rigor.) After all, the way it's shown in s6e2 also doesn't match the way it's shown in *checks watch* s2e7, which is the first place in the series itself it's implicitly referenced:

It's obviously a plot point that has always been intended, but the exact way it manifests and appears has drifted a bit... which is fine, it's not the first time that has happened.

Also I checked and the way Callum has written "Elarion!!" with double exclamation points does ultimately suggest to me that the "Ruins of Elarion" map location is known to the characters. The other option—that the location of Elarion had been lost, and Callum is speculating that the Key's target is the city itself—would make sense if the note was "Elarion?" or similar, but with the association between Aaravos and Elarion not actually being known to the characters, it would also be a bit of a leap for him to be making. Without that association, there also isn't any real reason for Callum or anyone to go to Elarion's location... until now, when it's finally linked to Aaravos through the Key. With the countdown already ticking and the archdragons gone (along with all their knowledge of Aaravos), it's actually probably their best lead aside from a return trip to the Starscraper.

Of course, now we have the problem that whatever they find there needs to involve seven years of delayed resolution, but hey...

Anyway, not really anything revelatory here, just me going back to lay out and understand where the characters themselves are coming from on finally figuring out shit that we've been Chekov's Gun anticipating for literal years.

[breelandwalker]

Me: -checking my inbox after being sick all week-

Rando In My Inbox: OMG LAY OFF THE POLITICS AND STICK TO WITCHCRAFT, YOU'RE A WITCH BLOG NOT A POLITICO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF-.....

Me, already blocking and reporting: Welp. Found the fascist trollbot. Or a straight up eejit. Either way. Byeeee.

[autistic-katara]

icl i would be at least a little happy with almost any ending for stranger things but one thing that would ruin all of it would be an epilogue (of a decade or more later)

[sketchingstars03]

people who imagine themselves in platonic/familial relationships with their comfort characters instead of romantic ones sound off I need to know I’m not alone in this

[pigeonclaw]

the amount of times I have potentially controversial opinions that I type up and then save in my drafts forever because I still feel them but am too shy and afraid to choose violence in any way

[bmpmp3]

this is the least important thing on earth but sometimes the way we vocal synth fans try to explain what vocal synths are to people who know nothing about them is a little. flawed. LIKE ITS FINE people are doing their best but i keep seeing people explain them in like really vague ways or using confusing words in the definition like stuff like "well a vocaloid is a type of voicebank" or "its a type of virtual singer" and i get a bit frustrated because like Unfortunately if someone doesn't know what a vocaloid is they are definitely not going to know what a voicebank is.

again this isnt that big of a deal and doesnt matter That Much but im pretty good at explaining niche or old or unusual colloquial stuff to laymen so this is always on my mind LOL you have to tailor it to the context and person but i usually start by asking if they are familiar with electric keyboards and/or digital audio workstations like garageband (depending on age) and go from there, maybe explain that its a piece of software but also the importance of the mascot characters representing the software. if they're really interested in the technicalities then we're going back to the 60s with LPC speech coding. BUT ONLY if theyre really REALLY curious. and maybe point on japanese mascot character culture a bit if they're confused.

always remember when expaining niche stuff to people to listen to their questions and try to answer thoughtfully, with consideration to the other person's understanding... (guy who is neurodivergent voice) i think about human interaction in a normal way and my explanation skills are immaculate.

[lollytea]

How do I say, without coming across as a jaded miserable little bitch who likes raining on everybody's parade, that the PJO Disney plus adaption is nostalgia bait, in the same way that their live action remakes are

[pezpenser205]

the main reason i know im not femme in the slightest is bc i cant comprehend why anyone would Ever want to be feminine. i can understand neutral leaning fem, but the idea that people are born wanting to be feminine is appalling to me personally because femininity always felt like imprisonment and torture. it was and still is a restraint. a training weight i was forced to bear. i cant fully empathize or understand anyone who wants to be more feminine because i have never and will never want to be more feminine out of anything other than pressure or insecurity. im most comfortable being gender neutral, hairy and disgusting in old gym shorts and stained tshirts no matter how much insecurity it causes me. i dont care. im never dressing up all pretty for anyone elses benefit ever again. and i assume this is how people who want to be feminine feel about masculinity to some extent. if thats the case im super glad we could trade because holy moly

[sunflower-rb]

i was not meant for school or a 9-5 job or a "normal" sleep schedule i was meant to be a house cat